Gadgets

Cassidy Wolf, who was crowned Miss Teen USA earlier this month, says that the webcam on her computer was hacked and someone took nude pictures of her without her knowledge.

The hacker then allegedly tried to extort sexual favors from the 19 year old in exchange for not leaking the photos.

"I was terrified. I started screaming, bawling my eyes out. I was on the phone with my mom, and I felt helpless because I wasn't sure what to do, so it was a very terrifying moment," Wolf told the "Today" show (video below).

"You would never think somebody would be watching you in your room and this guy had been. The thought of that just gave me nightmares."

The alleged incident happened four months before Wolf won Miss Teen USA.

"It happened to me when I was a normal girl and it can happen to anybody. The message is to tell somebody. The longer it goes on, the worse it will get, so if you can get the word out. Talk to the authorities.'" said the Temecula, California teen.

"I wasn't aware that somebody was watching me [on my webcam]. The light [on the camera] didn't even go on, so I had no idea."

Wolf wouldn't provide details about what she was doing in the photographs or about how exactly the hacking took place.

She advises people to change their passwords frequently, delete browsing history and put a sticker over the webcam when it's not being used.

According to TechCrunch, the hacking really depends on the vulnerability of the browser you're using. Sarafi and Firefox seem to be safe, but Google Chrome and IE have been vulnerable, although Google claims to have patched the problem on Chrome.

It also depends on what website you go on, because therein lies the hack.

TechCrunch reports a hacker "uses a bunch of fancy CSS/HTML trickery to render Flash’s permission prompt in a transparent layer (on a web site), placing the now invisible 'Allow' button directly above something the user is likely to click — like, say, the 'Play' button on a video."

When the user clicks the disguised button they are unwittingly giving consent for the hacker to use their webcam.

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